Video Overview | Mahlkonig EK43 Commercial Coffee Grinder
Is this the best grinder in the world? Mahlkonig's EK43 is reputed to boast unbeat consistency, unlimited versatility, and ultimate power – but are the rumors true? Fighting its way to fame with superior specs and a powerful appearance, the EK43 has become the competitor's and professional's choice for coffee grinding.
Transcript
Mahlkonig's EK43, the best grinder in the world. It's reputed to boast unbeat consistency, unlimited versatility and ultimate power. But are the rumors true? Fighting its way to fame with superior specs and a powerful appearance, the EK43 has become the competitor's and professional's choice for coffee grinding.
Today, we're taking a look at the EK43 coffee grinder, from Mahlkonig. The EK43 has made quite a name for itself this year. We've seen it popping up in competitions, on blogs, and in forums. There are a couple of reasons that set it apart from most grinders in its class.
The first of those is consistency. We have nearly unmatched particle size distribution coming out of this grinder. That means the coffee grinds that come out are nearly all the same size, or at least more so than just about any other coffee grinder out there. What that actually means is fewer fines in the cup, improved cup clarity and the opportunity for higher extraction without risking bitterness or over extraction.
The second of the things that make this really special is the versatility. So we have this really wide range of grind adjustment here. We have 11 reference points here. On the 11 end, we're getting something around a grind you use for a French press, and down even as low as two, we're getting really close to an espresso grind.
Now if you were going to use this grinder for espresso mostly, or even for Turkish, you can actually get this calibrated at the factory to have more of this range dedicated to those really fine settings. But either way, right out of the box you're are looking at an incredibly wide range. It just excels for each of those brew methods within that range. We really like it for all of those.
Another reason that it's great and versatile is that we have this bag clamp here. If you were using this to grind coffee for customers who are buying bags of coffee in your store, you can just clamp it on there, and it grinds incredibly fast.
That leads us to the third thing that makes it really special, which is power. The motoring here literally has a power of almost two horses. So we're looking at incredibly fast grind speed, around three pounds a minute on a medium grind setting, and that's all powering 98 millimeter burs right in here, which are just massive. Those are a few things that set this grinder apart from others.
Let's take a little quick tour and see what we have to work with. You have power switches on the side here, just 'On' and 'Off'. You can see the shape is really distinct, where you have the motor on the side, and the grinding chamber is actually offset. One of the benefits of that is actually a cooler grinding chamber, so the grounds aren't going to get as hot when you grind.
Hopper up here holds just over two pounds, and it moves through that pretty quickly because of how powerful it is. Below that, we have the grinding chamber here, 98 millimeter burs again, then the bag clamp here, which doubles as a chute or a knocker to clear that chute. You can see right there, after I release this trap door, just how fast this thing grinds. Just like that. So incredibly powerful. With all the power, you're actually looking at grinding about probably 20 to 22 grams per second.
If you are using this for single-cup pour over service, For each dose for those cups, you're looking at just a couple of seconds - maybe two seconds - to get all that coffee out. Incredibly fast and efficient for a coffee shop.
We recommend this grinder for anybody in a retail setting who is grinding full bags of coffee, or grinding for single cup service. There are even some people who have applied this for espresso service. You don't have some of the perks and the programmability of some espresso grinders. But if you are interested in that really optimal particle size distribution, and all the perks that come with that, it can be a great espresso grinder, too.
This is the EK43 from Mahlkonig. We highly recommend it. Thanks for watching.
